Universal Music, YouTube Forge Partnership

[Lila64]

Don't know if this was posted yet... Just saw it this morning


The man behind Universal Music Group's new YouTube music-video service: celebrity diplomat Bono. Evidently the U2 singer, whose band is on Universal Music Group, set up a meeting between the head of the label and Google CEO Eric Schmidt that led to the deal announced yesterday.

LA Times: Bono played the role of digital ambassador, prodding his label, Universal, and YouTube to explore a partnership.

[UMG's CEO Doug] Morris recounted how, over dinner in Paris, Bono suggested he meet with Google's chief executive. Schmidt, meanwhile, said he received an e-mail from Bono urging him to meet Morris. That spurred a trip to New York, where Schmidt said he was struck by the Universal executive's ideas for new advertising and sponsorship models.

"I came back here in California [thinking]: Why don't we think about a new approach?" Schmidt said. "That then kicked off Doug's vision."

It's kind of pathetic that Bono had to be the one to get Doug Morris and Eric Schmidt to meet to discuss their gripes about UMG's existing agreement with YouTube. You would think that the two CEOs would have pursued such a meeting themselves.

Nevertheless, the additional revenue that YouTube's new music video channel provides will probably eventually trickle down to its artists, which include U2—isn't it nice how that works out?

Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the UMG and Google's partnership, including the following:

*It's not a joint venture. Instead VEVO will be a wholly owned subsidiary of UMG.
*But both companies reportedly put up equal amounts of equity to start the service.
*Doug Morris is talking to other labels about participating in the service.
*UMG is looking to hire roughly 50 employees to work on the site, but YouTube will handle sales for VEVO on a short-term basis.
*According to Morris, over the past few years, Universal went from losing $70 million on music videos to earning roughly that amount now.
*Morris said that VEVO would eventually give fans the opportunity to buy merchandise and concert tickets.

Bono Brought YouTube And UMG Together (GOOG)

[sue4u2]

I went to Universals web site but I wasn't able to find anything about it. I've seen this in a couple of articles and atU2.com has sent out an email about it also.

Jazz News: Universal Music, YouTube Forge Partnership

The music giant will provide videos from its biggest acts for a new channel on YouTube. U2 lead singer Bono, well known for his ONE campaign against poverty, has turned his focus to a charity case closer to home: the ailing music industry.
The rocker is credited with bringing together Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music company, and You Tube, Google Inc.'s online video site, for talks that Thursday resulted in a partnership to launch a new music video service featuring professionally produced content from the label's big name acts.

YouTube will create a dedicated channel on its site, to be called Vevo, where users can watch music videos from Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Weezer and other Universal artists. Later this year, Universal and YouTube will debut a separate online music video site, Vevo.com, where viewers can watch music videos from Universal's library. YouTube will provide the underlying technology, Universal will furnish the content and the partners will split the advertising revenue.

“We have been searching for a way to work with the rights holders, which really does drive more -- let's be blunt -- more revenue," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

Music videos have posed a vexing dilemma for YouTube. These short-form videos are among the most watched clips on the site, with a hot new track from an artist like Soulja Boy attracting millions of views. But the advertising revenue has not been enough to make YouTube's partnerships with the labels profitable, even though it monetizes hundreds of millions of views a day. Indeed, Warner Music Group said it pulled its music videos off YouTube in December in a licensing dispute over the value of its content.

Universal Music Chairman and CEO Doug Morris proposed an approach modeled on the success of the Hulu video site, a joint venture of News Corp. and NBC Universal that, after a little more than a year, is attracting 34 million monthly viewers with the lure of Hollywood movies and episodes of popular TV shows.

Morris outlined a similar concept for music videos, in which YouTube and Universal, would bring together all the professionally produced content into the online equivalent of MTV. The venture would redistribute the music videos online in a bid to grab an audience large enough to attract advertisers. Morris said he was speaking with other major labels about participating in Vevo.

Bono played the role of digital ambassador, prodding his label, Universal, and YouTube to explore a partnership. Morris recounted how, over dinner in Paris, Bono suggested he meet with Google's chief executive. Schmidt, meanwhile, said he received an e-mail from Bono urging him to meet Morris. That spurred a trip to New York, where Schmidt said he was struck by the Universal executive's ideas for new advertising and sponsorship models.
continued>>

Actually it's a LA Times article.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,7026280.story